In the past week, we visited many iconic Japanese ancient buildings, such as Nijo Castle, Osaka Castle and kinkaku Temple. As we all know, Japanese culture is deeply influenced by China, which naturally contains many architectural features. But this is not true, at least not completely true. For example, among the ancient buildings in China, only the buildings used by emperors can reach nine halls, and no one else can build buildings larger than or equal to nine halls. However, sanjyusangennto, like its name, has thirty-three halls. Followed by the roof of sanjyusangennto, the roof of a real Chinese ancient building has a concave curve on each side, which aims to avoid the tiles on the roof falling and better drainage. But the roofs of sanjyusangennto and other Japanese buildings are mostly straight lines. Visually, they are similar, but in fact they are different.
Then there is Nijo Castle. Basically, sanjyuusangenndou still has Chinese elements in some details and architectural layout, Nijo Castle is completely dominated by Japanese architectural style. The layout of the main building in Nijo Castle is an irregular polygon with several square areas inside. At least Chinese ancient buildings will not be irregular polygons. Moreover, compared with other ancient buildings, whether China or Japanese, Nijo Castle is too luxurious and fancy in both the gate and the interior. Even more luxurious than Kyoto Imperial Garden. I think this also shows to some extent that the Japanese emperor’s power is weak and the generals are strong in this historical period.
As for Osaka Castle and Kinnkakuji, they are all too new. Osaka Castle was rebuild in 1931, and the Kinnkakuji was rebuild in 1955. Of course, they are all great buildings, but it’s a pity that we can’t see their original appearance. Because even if we try hard to restore the original appearance of the building, a large building like Osaka Castle will not be completely consistent in details after all.